Like this:

I remember Summer vacations and the trips we made from Florida to North Carolina to visit with my parent’s families. Getting together with my cousins was always fun but the visits where my parents sat and talked with their elderly relatives were torture. They would sit in rocking chairs and rock, talk, rock, talk, asking if this relative or that one was still living. Had it not been for my love of books I would have disgraced myself and pitched a fit to relieve my boredom.

Years later as I reflect on my childhood boredom I have a better understanding of it. As a child my memories were written on a virtually blank space, consisting for the most part of things my brothers did to aggravate me.There was very little to stimulate pleasant memories, because only a few had been written. Now, in my senior years, my mind bounces like the steel ball in a Pinball machine. A scent, a song or even picking up a frying pan used by my mother all set my memory bells dinging. My present and past mingle in pleasant harmony and sometimes my mind is so refreshed that the sharp pain of an aching knee comes as a shock.

My body betrays.

Disconnected from my soul.

Childish dreams remain.

Back in the “day” I had a tape by Beth Nielson Chapman. Her writing is poignant, expressing deep feeling. I love the song Emily which talks of lasting friendship and Like a Child Again, which portrays the inner being of a person with Alzheimer’s. I decided to share Years with this post as it seemed most appropriate. I hope you enjoy it and check out her other songs.

Am I only one who is surprised when their body is not in sync with their mind?

When the movie star, Bette Davis, became elderly, she had a pillow with these words embroidered on it. “Old age is not for sissies.” I admired that platitude and to this day, I try to live by it. Last week we met a woman in a rehab facility who is an example of courage in the face of aging.

In 1919 when World War 1 was ending, Helga was six years old, and it was almost Christmas. The teacher was busy planning a Christmas program so before school one day, Helga took an empty paper sack and smoothed it out so she could create a poem. It is a medium length poem about the birth of Christ. Helga recited every word by heart. She’s also a modern day, on- the-spot poet. Here’s the one she spoke for me.

“There’s a lady in a jacket of pink.

When she used to wash dishes, she stood by the sink.

Her blouse is full of flowers.

I hope the Lord gives you many happy hours.”

After the poem Helga invited us to sing along as she played on a battered harmonica about twelve inches long with key of G holes on one side and key of C holes on the other. She sat in the seat of her walker and told stories of her childhood. She asked us to say the words from John 3:16 with her, which we did, and to sing, “You are My Sunshine,” while she accompanied us. Here’s a bit of her story:

“In 1913, I was born of German parents in a Hoboken cold-water, walk up flat. By the time Americans entered WW 1 in 1917 I was four years old, and I thought Germans were nice. Mama taught us that Jesus wanted us to love people, and that we should never put ourselves above anyone else. I was amazed when I learned during the war that we could be thrown in jail for speaking The Father Tongue. All along American Germans were persecuted as spies. When word came that the war was over, the streets filled with people. We hugged and sang. Folks in wagons and cars drove past waving or honking their horns. One wagon was pulled by a white horse and had a saloon woman sitting on the seat next to the driver. I knew she was from around the corner where we were never allowed to go. In the back of the wagon someone had stuck a dummy, head first, into a toilet bowl and everyone was saying it was the Kaiser.”

Hoboken, New Jersey

Helga will be 103 in February of 2016. I wanted to ask what she believed had kept her going this long, but I thought I knew the answer. I had once asked another 103 year old woman and her husband, who was 105 what kept them strong. They said it was being a follower of Jesus. I believe it. The joy of the Lord is Helga’s strength, too. That makes Helga no sissie at all.

Like this:

Getting old is inevitable-
but aging is optional.
How you are going to age is up to you.

As we get older
it increases our confidence.
There is a part of us that is eternal.
Try to keep a healthy point of view.

Don’t let your age put you in a box.
Exercise your gray matter.
A good sense of humor will see you through.

A friend of mine shared this with me.
I would like to pass it on to you.

“Older people do not decline mentally with age.
It just takes them longer to recall facts
because they have more information in
their brain, scientists believe.
Much like a computer struggles as the hard
drive gets full, so do humans take longer
to access information. it has been suggested.
Researchers say this slowing down is not the same
as cognitive decline. “The human brain works more
slowly in old age”, said Dr. Michael Ramscar, “but
only because we have stored more information
over time. “The brains of older people do not get weak.
On the contrary, they simply know more.”

The young woman in me
keeps knocking on my memory.
“I don’t like what’s happening to you-
Remember what you USED to do?
Your transportation was a two-wheel bike-
until you reached “21”
and no longer had to hike

And your first car was a convertible-
very “sporty” for an adventurous girl!
But you have to accept reality-
tho young at heart,
your body’s not free.

You used to be 5’8
and 120 was your weight-
Now you’ve shrunk to 5′ 2
and you can’t stop what’s happening to you.”

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